User blog:Booster.exit13/6 months in and still here
Before I get too far in here I want to make something perfectly clear. Everything you are about to read is the opinion of a single player and should not be considered the shared opinion of anyone else. I’m not an expert by any means so don’t consider any of this to be concrete. Now we have that out I can get into this. Wow! Its been about 6ish months since I joined the #twitterponies RP and I’m still around. Didn’t expect that to be honest. I’ve met a lot of great people here and would like to thank them for their support and friendship. The first thing I want to talk about is something a lot of players don’t seem to understand. You are the main character of your own story. You are not a background character of anysort. Given that information it should be said that every character is the same, a main in their own story. Depending on your level of interaction you may be a side character or just an acquaintance. The mane 6 and other show derived characters are main characters in their own stories. A good way to think about it is like this “My little pony: Friendship is Magic is for the mane 6. Twitterponies is for everypony else” That being said the show derived characters are not celebrities. Twilight isn’t famous for being the element of magic. She should be considered nothing more than a simple librarian. Same goes for the others. Rarity makes dresses, Applejack sells apples etc. My OC knows only that the elements of harmony live in Ponyville but she doesn’t know who they are, and you know what. It doesn’t matter. Its not an important piece of information to know. What would she do knowing Rarity is the element of Generosity? Odds are, she would be surprised and not press the matter further. Onto another topic I want to talk about depth perception in the RP. There should be a sense of worldly depth when you’re RPing. What do you do in real life. You get up, walk outside and drive somewhere, you don’t immediately appear out of thin air in a convenient location (I’ll talk about stuff like that later). If your character is in their house they wouldn’t just ‘appear’ in town when someone they want to interact with is out and about. There should be at least a small progression from one place to another @mlp_OC: *OC wakes up with a squeaky yawn* I sure slept well. @mlp_OC: Hi some other OC on the other side of town. How are you? Doesn’t really look good does it. @mlp_OC: *OC wakes up with a squeaky yawn* I sure slept well. @mlp_OC: Hmm, looks like I’m out of some random ingredient. I should go to the market *heads out into PV* @mlp_OC: *OC gets to the market and sees @mlp_someonetheyalreadyknow and trots over* Hey what’s going on? That to me looks much better and gives a sense of depth that you actually went from one place to another. Meeting someone your character hasn’t met shouldn’t be so non-chalant as to be “hello, what’s your name?” How often do you do that in real life? Meeting new characters should come naturally. I met new characters at a party my OC was invited to. I didn’t seek them out at random. My character thought they were familiar and approached them. Also, don’t just drop on another player with “Hi who are you?” Give some fair warning before just going up to them. They might be busy with something else and not be in a position to talk to anyone else. @mlp_OC: *walking around PV they spot @mlp_unknowntotheircharacter doing jumping jacks at the fountain and approach them* Uh... What are you doing? Makes more sense if your character is the type to approach a situation like that. Make meeting others natural, you’ll have more fun and so will the other player. @mlp_unknowntotheircharacter: Who me? I’m just seeing if the ground here is good enough for doing jumping jacks. @mlp_OC: That’s interesting, mind if I join in? (@mlp_unknowntotheircharacter) From there the two can interact and greet one another in a more interesting and fun way. If the player you want to talk to is busy or just doesn’t respond, leave them alone. Trying to pester them will leave a bad impression on you and your chances of potentially interacting with them again will be severely lowered. Just leave and try again when the opportunity arises. Calling them out for ignoring you is in bad taste, shrug it off and continue on. Onto interactions and story arcs. Going up to another player in a cafe makes sense. Going up to them when they’re in the deepest parts of Tartaros does not. Following characters who are doing big story arcs leaves a bad impression of you on them. They’re facing down a dragon in a story your character has no idea of makes no sense. Just read the story and enjoy it. Making big story arcs can be difficult and trying to juggle a random when they aren’t expected can make things harder for everyone and you’ll likely get ignored or blocked. If you ‘are’ in on a big story arc. Remember to let the storyteller tell the story. If you are tagging along for the ride then you are there to put your two cents in on what’s going on, not to control it unless permission is given to do so. It wouldn’t look good to be at the bottom of the ocean to find a pony eating monster just to save the group single handedly, taking away whatever plans they had. Tag along and enjoy, ask for permission before doing anything drastic. It’ll look better to the readers and put you out to be a more professional player who can cooperate with others. Speaking of cooperation, try to understand that you do have a reputation to uphold. Bad players are called such because they make bad decisions. Those players will get less opportunities to interact with others or their interactions will be lessened and watered down. Be humble and respect other players, they’ll hopefully return the kindness. Next I want to talk about characters. Making a character isn’t something that happens overnight. Take time and develop a character that other players will ‘want’ to interact with. The character is a reflection of how good a player you can be. Having a character faster than RD can’t be swallowed so easily as one that is simply, fast. Skills are important to consider too. Controlling fire or being good at ‘everything’ is kinda boring. What good is controlling fire going to do when this is a lighthearted RP? If anything it should be used as a distraction or for entertainment purposes. What else could it serve when death and serious injuries are pretty much frowned upon. Set a limit to what your character is good at and keep their skills relative to what they do for a living. Playing a character that can solve every situation takes away from the immersion and hampers your reputation. Also try to understand that you are not your character, and they in turn are not you. Regarding what I said earlier about being conveniently somewhere. Appearing out of thin air is something to be saved for comedic purposes with players that are willing to accept that you will do this. @mlp_closefriend: Le sigh, things are sure boring around here @mlp_OC: *pops up from out of nowhere behind @mlp_closefriend* You could say that again. On the note of close friends, they sure can come in handy when you need them. Having a player you can fall back on when nothing else is happening will make sure you don’t get bored, or at least not get bored by yourself. An RP buddy or group that like you are always a nice thing to have, and they don’t always show up two days into the RP. I didn’t come across many players I regularly play with until I was a few months in. Patience is a virtue. I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. @mlp_Keylime Category:Blog posts